There are none where I grew up either, the first time I saw them was when I was lying on a bamboo mat in a straw hut on an island in Southeast Asia, after my first plane flight actually. The sun had set and next thing I knew hundreds of tiny reddish stars were dancing under the roof in a strange almost synchronised drift. That was a good year.

In late April or early May, I had two, possibly three sightings, each flashing very slowly (<1 second flash every few minutes)
1) 2 simultaneously under a 10m dark patch of heavy foliage bordering undergrowth across the street (two days)
2) on a different day, a single specimen down the street, ~75m from the above (on the other side of the street, separated by large lawns/houses)

Each cluster may have had more individuals, but I could only vouch for the number lit simultaneously.

I was surprised because this would have been unseasonably early even for Georgia in my youth. I didn't know what to make of them coming out so early, in such cool weather (highs in the 60s on those days), so far north, after having been so scarce in recent decades. I was hoping it might herald one of those mysterious insect explosions--but it hasn't materialized. Stinkbugs seem to be booming early and intensively up here (with a notably larger species than a couple of years ago) though the entomologists still can't say why. Cicadas and gypsy larva booms run like crazy clockwork. Is it too much to ask for a Year Of The Fireflies?

Admittedly, I haven't been a very good observer -- all three sightings were while heading to/from the car or checking my mail, but I really haven't seen any since then, and it has had me questioning whether I was just catching peeps or reflections of some green LED on some outdoor gizmo my neighbors have, bordering the wildlife preserve. Well, we'll see. We just had three consecutive days of high 80s/low 90s, and more to come next week, That should encourage them to pupate and/or emerge

I can recall seeing fireflies only once in my life. It was in the mid 1970's on a trip in my newly acquired Datsun 240Z down Mexico way, in August. My dad and I didn't care for the motel offering in Ciudad Obregon, so we decided to drive through till morning. We were on a deserted road with no city lights or street lights and the sky overhead was amazing, with the Milky Way banding across thousands of brilliant stars. All of a sudden there was a swarm of beautiful fireflies passing the car, so I stopped to enjoy the view and the moment. We felt honored and lucky.

Admittedly, I haven't been a very good observer -- all three sightings were while heading to/from the car or checking my mail, but I really haven't seen any since then, and it has had me questioning whether I was just catching peeps or reflections of some green LED on some outdoor gizmo my neighbors have, bordering the wildlife preserve. Well, we'll see. We just had three consecutive days of high 80s/low 90s, and more to come next week, That should encourage them to pupate and/or emerge

Yeah, some green LED on some outdoor gizmo, yep, that's what the lights were. Not aliens, nope, no aliens hiding in the foliage.

yadda yadda, on 29 May 2016 - 09:23 AM, said:

I can recall seeing fireflies only once in my life. It was in the mid 1970's on a trip in my newly acquired Datsun 240Z down Mexico way, in August. My dad and I didn't care for the motel offering in Ciudad Obregon, so we decided to drive through till morning. We were on a deserted road with no city lights or street lights and the sky overhead was amazing, with the Milky Way banding across thousands of brilliant stars. All of a sudden there was a swarm of beautiful fireflies passing the car, so I stopped to enjoy the view and the moment. We felt honored and lucky.

yadda

You've only seen them once? That's sad that they don't really go west of Kansas. They like humidity and standing water, and there is a lot of that here.
The best part of my childhood was spent trying to catch them so they would crawl on me and light up. The goal was to see how many we could get to stay on us at one time. It would almost inevitably end up with my dad and my siblings putting them all on me. Every year when they come out, I go back to those days.

El~ blue crystal glows, the dark side unseen, sparkles in scant light, from sun to planet, to me in between ~

I want a job in HRC's "shadow" cabinet. Good pay, really easy hours, lots of time off. Can't go wrong.

"You have a fair and valid point here. I've pointed out, numerous times, that the Left's or Democrats always cry "Racist" whenever someone disagrees with them. I failed to realize that the Right or Republicans do the same thing with "Liberal"." ~ LotS

Yes, for us "lightning bug hour" was a standard part of summer dusk. I wonder how many hundred evenings we chased and caught them. I feel a little sad that my kids missed out on that. They did see them from time to time, and we went out and caught them a time or two, but it was nothing like the eternal routine -- the small, often pointless, activities, like sucking the droplet of dew from the bases of thousands of honeysuckles-- that were the foundational tapestry of our summers.

Admittedly, I haven't been a very good observer -- all three sightings were while heading to/from the car or checking my mail, but I really haven't seen any since then, and it has had me questioning whether I was just catching peeps or reflections of some green LED on some outdoor gizmo my neighbors have, bordering the wildlife preserve. Well, we'll see. We just had three consecutive days of high 80s/low 90s, and more to come next week, That should encourage them to pupate and/or emerge

Yeah, some green LED on some outdoor gizmo, yep, that's what the lights were. Not aliens, nope, no aliens hiding in the foliage.

yadda yadda, on 29 May 2016 - 09:23 AM, said:

I can recall seeing fireflies only once in my life. It was in the mid 1970's on a trip in my newly acquired Datsun 240Z down Mexico way, in August. My dad and I didn't care for the motel offering in Ciudad Obregon, so we decided to drive through till morning. We were on a deserted road with no city lights or street lights and the sky overhead was amazing, with the Milky Way banding across thousands of brilliant stars. All of a sudden there was a swarm of beautiful fireflies passing the car, so I stopped to enjoy the view and the moment. We felt honored and lucky.

yadda

You've only seen them once? That's sad that they don't really go west of Kansas. They like humidity and standing water, and there is a lot of that here.
The best part of my childhood was spent trying to catch them so they would crawl on me and light up. The goal was to see how many we could get to stay on us at one time. It would almost inevitably end up with my dad and my siblings putting them all on me. Every year when they come out, I go back to those days.

Well Elara, this part of Mexico is definitely west of Kansas, but it was near the western coast of Mexico during August, which is the beginning of humid, muggy hurricane season down there. And the city we had passed had a large lagoon, so it looks like the region had conditions conducive to fireflies. Or maybe they were just vacationing south of the border, too?

I see them almost yearly, if I'm lucky. I too just saw them last week for the first time this year. Sadly, it'll also probably be for the last time this year, as the local gov. sprays for insects (mostly mosquitoes, but apparently it kills off the lightning bugs and their larvae too). I remember seeing them all the time, like the honey bees, when I was a kid. I actually see more bees than I do lightning bugs a year. So what does that speak?

"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." --- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Beryl Coronet

The Boscombe Valley Mystery: "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."

"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing." --- Ralph Waldo Emerson 'Art,' 1841